Sherdog’s Guide to ‘The Ultimate Fighter’

Johnny Bedford did everything but ask 'Are you not entertained?'
in his TUF debut. | Photo: Sherdog.com

Here we are again with “Sherdog’s Guide to the Ultimate
Fighter.”

Plenty could be said about this 14th season. Fans of the mighty
lights will certainly be intrigued by the welcoming of
bantamweights and featherweights into the fold. Coaches, the
ever-so-serious Michael
Bisping and the never-that-serious Jason “Mayhem”
Miller -- offer a personality clash that’s an instant storyline
on its own.

Plus, it’s the final season of “The Ultimate Fighter” on Spike, the
cable OB/GYN that essentially gave birth to today’s current MMA
explosion after Forrest
Griffin and Stephan Bonner honored the sport with a finale for
the ages just six short years ago.

Luckily, any newbie could have just picked up their remote and
enjoyed this premiere without any prior knowledge of the facts
listed above. For anyone that likes to watch TUF, you know, for
the fights, there may never be a better episode. This current
crop didn’t come in pretending or just to preen for the cameras.
This is an outright murderer’s row of bad asses heretofore unseen.
Just about all of the 32 fighters showed up ready to blast their
way into the house.

Sure, you’re thinking to yourself, “Hey, I’ve been screaming at the
UFC to include WEC-sized guys for years. I could have predicted
this.” Fair enough, but it wasn’t just the breakneck speed and
non-stop motors of these smaller fighters. This group is gritty,
skilled and hungry. Some might say those type of guys have always
been around, TUF just never casted them. To those, I say: why are
you still reading this? Go steal a TV and watch this premiere
already!

This time, the new batch walks into the Mandalay Bay Events Center
instead of the usual UFC Training Center. Dana is there in his
standard suit and welcomes everyone with the perfunctory swears
before introducing this season’s coaches.

Jason
Miller and Michael
Bisping appear looking like their usual selves. Mayhem, ever
subdued, always looks like a puppy that’s happy to see you opening
the screen door. Bisping arrives with a scowl on his face as though
he’s been helping Scotland Yard solve a grisly crime all summer
long.

White tells the fellas that he wants them to look around the arena
and soak it all in. He then offered a new wrinkle for this season:
this time around fans will be voting on the “Best KO,” “Best
Submission” and “Best Fight,” which will pay $25,000 each.

It’s also important to note that these fights were so good that the
powers that be opted to show almost all of them, making this a
two-hour episode. That’s the first time that’s occurred and bodes
well for the remainder of this season. With two hours of fights to
show, they get right to it, with the guys duking it out right there
in the Mandalay Bay.

The first fight is between Casey Dwyer and Josh
Ferguson. Ferguson has a twin brother, Bruce, also in the
bantamweight division, setting up a potential situation of brother
versus brother a la the recent film “Warrior.”

Ferguson does his brotherly part, absolutely destroying the
curly-haired Dwyer in about 14 seconds with a destructive overhand
right. ”It seems like Josh
Ferguson was mad he didn’t have a dip in his mouth and his
cowboy hat on and ran right across the ring and just knocked Shaun
White right out of his snowboard boots,” comments Jason
Miller.

Up next is a featherweight bout between Brazilian Diego
Brandao and Jesse
Newell. Bisping points out that Brandao has had 11 knockouts in
13 fights, all in the first round. Newell, who doesn’t seem to
care, comes right at Brandao with some hard kicks to the body.
Brandao easily adjusts to the flurry and decides to just end it
with a looping left that drops Newell to the canvas. The Brazilian
then sails through the air to deliver a flying elbow to finish him
off.

Dana and the coaches react wildly to the viciousness of the finish
and Mayhem pointed out that the finish mirrored the ugly finishing
shot Bisping received from Dan
Henderson.

Greg Jackson-trained bantamweight John Dodson
comes in fighting in fifth gear, throwing kicks at a speed that set
the stage for trouble. Dodson slaps away at Brandon
Merkt’s legs at will but it is a body shot that folds his foe
early on. Dodson lands several more crushing lefts to the body and
the head but Herb Dean steps
in and stops the walloping still early in the first round.

Jimmie
Rivera is all over Dennis
Bermudez in the first round of their featherweight bout,
hammering him with punches, and knocking him down. However, in the
second, with Rivera winded, Bermudez comes back hard. Bermudez is
able to take Rivera’s back and capitalize on his sapped strength by
flattening him out on his stomach and pounding his ears until the
stoppage.

Any chance Josh
Ferguson has of fighting his brother Bruce are dashed when his
sibling gets into the cage with Roland
Delorme. Delorme wrenches an armbar in a few terribly wrong
directions before adjusting and settling in with a triangle choke
that causes Ferguson to tap in the first frame.

The featherweight title between Marcus
Brimage and Bryson Wailehua-Hansen is violent from stem to
stern. What began as an even-handed, technical affair turns ugly
once Brimage starts to unload bombs.

Not a few bombs, full on sortie missions. He tags Hansen so many
times and so heavily that it turned into a source of concern for
all parties. Hansen never goes down despite absorbing Brimage’s
best shots for what seems like an eternity, but the level of
intensity of the shots and the lack of any return blows leads to a
second-round stoppage.

Next up at 135 is Carson
Beebe, little brother to former WEC 135-pound champ Chase Beebe.
However, Johnny
Bedford takes it to him immediately. Bedford throws a million
looks at Beebe, outboxing him, outwrestling him and then finishing
him by submission with a guillotine that just about pops his head
off like a bottle cap.

Bedford warned before the bout that his experience was going to be
trouble for everyone and he delivered. Bedford comes out looking
like one of the most complete fighters of the day.

“This is going to be a nasty season,” says Dana afterwards to a
table of nodding coaches, stirred by Bedford’s performance.

Tateki
Matsuda is the first Japanese fighter to make a TUF debut,
taking on Dustin
Pague at 135. Matsuda promises kicks in the pre-fight hype talk
and proves he wasn’t kidding after throwing a handful of powerful
high kicks in the opening minute. However, Pague takes over the
fight with spinning back fists and effective offense, earning a
two-round majority decision in a fight that could have gone another
round.

“All of these guys are good, there’s not one that doesn’t look like
he belongs in there,” says Bisping between bouts, rousing agreement
from Dana White.

Not all the fights get the full treatment, however, as we get a
bevy of highlights.

At 135, Scotland’s Paul McVeigh
faced green-haired Louis
Gaudinot. Louis’s green mop makes him look like The Joker and
Diego
Sanchez had a baby, or as Bisping says, “a cross between
Josh
Koscheck and a toilet brush.” However, after McVeigh showed his
nasty Muay Thai in round one, Gaudinot lands an incredible back
elbow on McVeigh’s unsuspecting face. It rocks McVeigh, allowing
“Goodnight” to pound McVeigh into the ground for the final minute
of the fight to take the upset win.

In probably the least exciting bout we get to see, Strikeforce
champ Miesha
Tate’s boyfriend and WEC veteran Bryan
Caraway uses top position and cruises to a victory over
Eric
Marriott using superior wrestling, though according to Dana
White he “played it safe.”

In the featherweight division, Dustin
Neace surprises Josh
Clopton. Clopton can get positions, but Neace shows he can
sweep and end up on top, effectively stealing both rounds from
Clopton. Neace wins the decision in a shocker to both the coaches
and Dana, who thought he got dominated.

T.J.
Dillashaw connects early with a left hand on Matt
Jaggers, earning a “Nice!” from all the coaches. Dillashaw and
Jaggers go back and forth with Dillashaw leaving his hands very
low, making both coaches nervous. However, with the final seconds
ticking away in the fight, he drops some brutal elbows that force
Herb
Dean to call it off just as the bell sounds.

“Even though I don’t know who my opponent is, he knows who I am,
and he knows he’s screwed,” says Micah
Miller, punctuating his pre-fight statement with long, dramatic
pauses.

Micah is the younger brother of Cole Miller
and believes his pedigree and experience make him a favorite to win
the show. Dana White agrees; he goes ahead and crosses Steven
Siler off his sheet of fighters before they even start, just
based on Siler’s body language when he finds out he was fighting
Miller.

Siler may look forlorn in the cage, but when the fight starts, he
comes like a bat out of hell.

Hard shots and numerous take downs show that Siler can do more than
just hang. After two close rounds, Siler almost gets submitted
thanks to an ill-advised takedown that put him right in Miller’s
danger zone. Hoever, Siler survives and surprises the room -- and
possibly the entire casting department -- by guillotining the
touted Miller for the finish.

Dana White opines that bantamweight John Albert
“didn’t deserve to win” his fight with Orville
Smith over the highlights, saying that Albert inexplicably
decided to stay on the ground with Smith after dominating the stand
up game. According to Dana, Albert’s corner had told him to stand
back up at least 20 times. Nonetheless, Albert grinds it out and
earns the W with a rear-naked choke.

Karsten
Lenjoint loses his wind after round one against fellow
featherweight Steven Bass, and his foe takes over. Lenjoint defends
a takedown from Bass, but ends up stuck in his triangle and can’t
get out, letting Bass into the house.

Before the final battle, the coaches and Dana gush about what they
have seen so far.

“People use their brush or their instrument to create art,” says
Corassani just before fight time. Akira considers himself a fight
artist, and decides to use Pearman’s chin as his canvas.

After a wild and wooly first few minutes. Pearman almost catches
Corassani in a brabo choke, but when the two stand back up,
Corassani unloads with ridiculous, devastating, looping punches
that land flush again and again, until Pearman hits the mat.

Afterward, Corassani whoops and hollers, spraying water at Coach
Miller, earning him high praise from Bisping.

After all the dust settles, Dana brings the remaining fighters back
around to tell them just how impressed he was. “Overly impressed”
are his exact words. He asks them not to get any big heads, but for
once, you could tell he was relieved to be giving a congratulatory
speech instead of his usual “Do you really want to be here””
expletive-laden gripe session

. Next comes the perfunctory
this-is-going-to-be-the-best-season-ever talk from the coaches.
It’s different this season, though. This time, you get the feeling
they might be telling the truth.